I spoke to some college students yesterday morning, and during the presentation, I offered a scenario like this:
Imagine you’re a customer service representative for a reliable mobile service provider. While working, a customer calls, yelling at you because his bill was $40 more than normal. His bill was $40 more than normal because he used 100 minutes over his alloted amount.
I asked them how they’d respond to this scenario, and needless to say, their responses weren’t diplomatic. 🙂 Their responses ranged from yelling back at the man to hanging up the phone.
I’ve discovered that most people don’t handle evil too well. Most of the time, our initial response is retaliation; we want to fix the problem and the person causing it. 🙂 But again, Paul issues a challenging statement: “Never pay back evil with more evil.” In other words, no matter how silencing or tempting our response, we must hold our peace. Simply stated, retaliation is not an option for Christians.
Avoiding retaliation is absolutely Christian; you cannot turn the other cheek unless CHRIST lives in you! Then again, a peaceful response to evil exemplifies the love of CHRIST. When we were GOD’S enemies (sinners), CHRIST didn’t give us what we deserved. Instead, HE gave us the love we needed.
CHRIST didn’t retaliate, and neither should you. Be blessed!